4.1.6 - Shaykh Abu al-Abbas al-Sabti (Marrakesh, 597/1201)

At the beginning of the year 597/1200, the Greatest Shaykh arrived in Marrakesh, where he met the famous ascetic Shaykh Abu al-Abbas al-Sabti, who, as Shaykh Muhyiddin says, was one of the saints to whom Allah answers their prayers in this world through charity. Due to this high state, by the Will of Allah, he was able to cause sickness, healing, bring to life or death, appoint or discharge (rulers), and doing what he wanted, all that thanks to charity! Therefore, Shaykh Muhyiddin called him the charity-man. However, when he visited him, he told Shaykh Muhyiddin that Allah has saved for him a quarter of a dirham especially for the Hereafter. The Shaykh then adds that no one knows about his state except those who have experienced with him or who asked him about it and he told them about himself. However, Shaykh Muhyiddin showed that such a state, despite its height, is in fact a lack of perfection, which is to be given by Allah what one wants in the world without any previous request, because the people of God do not want anything in the world for themselves or by themselves, except when God wants [Futuhat: IV.121].

Shaykh Ahmed Abu al-Abbas al-Khazraji al-Sabti is the patron saint of Marrakesh, in the Islamic tradition. He is also one of the "Seven Saints" of the city. He was born in Ceuta in 1129, but moved to Marrakesh in 1145-6, during the final weeks of the Almohad siege of the city. For a number of years he lived in a cave on the hill of Igilliz outside Marrakesh, only coming into town on Fridays for the communal prayer. The Almohad sultan Yaqoub al-Mansour was a disciple of al-Abbas. He asked him to come and live in the city and provided him a house, a hostel for his disciples as well as a madrasa for study. Teaching was maintained by the sultan’s own funds. Whenever Yaqoub al-Mansour visited al-Abbas he made a point of behaving in a humble manner and acting "as a servant". The Andalusian philosopher Ibn Rushd visited al-Abbas several times in Marrakesh. He died in 1204, and he was buried at the graveyard of Sidi Marouk, near Bab Taghzout.

Abu all-Abbas’s hagiography, Akhbar Abi’l-Abbas as-Sabti, written by Abu Yaqoub Yusuf Ibn Yahya al-Tadili, was in part composed by al-Abbas himself and it contains many autobiographical passages.